The Opelousas courier., 1887-06-11
SIBERIAN EXlLES.
Russia's Method of Disposing
or Objectionable Persons.
Unfortunate Condition Of Prisoners, and
Their Efforts to Escape

A graphic picture of the condition oil
those unfortunates who are fifty dc.
scribed as slost souls" is drawn in the
work on Siberia by the Russian writer
Jadrinzcf. But very few of the ex.les
ever attain to the possession of q
"house," by which is meant a miserable
hut. Most of them are in reality the
bondsmen of the Siberian peasants, by
whom they are hired; that is to say. they
remain in their debt as lon as they live,
and arc satisfied when they "a get
money for drink on holidays from their
masters. But as the majority of the
exiles are rogues and v~agabonds
by profession, who are afraid of
work, tho number of fugi-
tives is constantly increasing, who steal,
rob and plumber whenever a chance Of
fers, and thus intensity the natural an
tipathy of the settlers against the class
of the dc ported. The peasants have cv-
cry cause to be inccnsed against them, for,
besides suffering from the mafpract!ces
of the convict class, they have to bear
the cost of the erection and preservation
of prisons for the e%xiles, organize hunts
for the capture of ru1awiys, provide
guards for them and find the taxes which
cannot be raised from among the de-
ported class. Bat the greatest gaps in
the ranks of the %cxiles, are caused by the
almost systematic escape of the latter
from forced labor and from the convict
settlements. No less than fifteen per
cent. of the deportod escape during
transport. Many of them are shot down
like wild beasts by the peasants and ma
tiyes, and an observer Of Siberian life
made a very true remark when he said
that Siberia would scarcely have been
able to overpower the runaway exiles if
the peasants had not annihilated them.
The most extreme measures to chec'S
the system of escape are the hunts by
the natives, organized by the Rus sian
government. The native receives three
rubles if he delivers the prisoner, ''dead
or alive" to the authorities. The peo-
pie are provided with good arms and
ammunition, so rs to make hunting the
escaped prisoners a success. One of
those few who managed to escaped was
seized in his native village, and when
brought before the court he said: s'For
two years | have wandered about, have
swami through rivers and seas, have
crossed Siberian forests, passed through
steppes and mountains-and no one has
touched me, neither man nor beast, but
here, in my native village, ! have been
seized and cast into chains.n The
escape from forced labor had become so
common that the administrators of con-
vict establishments were in the habit of
calling cut when receiving prisoners:
s'Whoever wishes to stay let him take
clothes; he who wants to run away will
not need them" It should be observed
that the clothes left behind by escaped
conyicts, so as to guard against capture,
are the perquisites of the Prison au-
thoritics.
While the statistics show an incr edible
increase in the number of crimes COM
mitted by cxllcs, proving the efficiency
of the system of deportation as a cor
rective a delusion, they are equally con-
demnatory of its much vaunted cheap |
ness to the state. The cost of transport
OF a Siberian deportc is estimated at
fifty rubles (s37. SOY. Bit in this esti-
mate are not iacludel the cost of trans
port to the main route steamers on the /
Volga and Kama,l and thence to the
place of destination, the m .intenance of
bis family, If he is accompanied by it,
the maintenance in prison till the spring.
as transports in winter have been abol-
ished, as well Us the cost of the military
guard, SO that tie expenses of transport
for each convict to his place of dcstina-
ton amounts to about 800 rnbles ($225),
a sum which would be sufficient TO keep
him at least four years in the dearest
prison Of European Russia. But this
sum is raised to 800 rubles $4,000 by the
expense attaching to the maintenance
Of etappe routes, escorts, prisons along
the routes and etappe houses.
an Electrical Baton.
Leading a chorus by electrical appara-